New Delhi: The opposition on Tuesday (March 10) moved a resolution in the Lok Sabha seeking the removal of Speaker Om Birla, accusing him of being partisan. The treasury benches defended Birla, saying that the opposition wants to decide the role of the Speaker as well as who will occupy his chair.The discussion on the no confidence motion comes after 118 MPs signed a notice seeking Birla’s removal last month, during the first half of the budget session. This is only the fourth instance in parliamentary history that such a motion has been moved. Previously, no confidence motions have been moved in 1954, 1966 and 1987. However, this is the first time that such a resolution is being discussed in the house in the absence of a deputy speaker, with the post lying vacant since 2019. The House saw an uproar when the motion was moved in the absence of a deputy speaker, with opposition members accusing the government of “creating a constitutional vacuum” and raising objections to members of the panel of chairpersons presiding over the proceedings, as they had been nominated by the Speaker himself.During the debate, opposition members referred to various instances when Birla as Speaker allegedly acted in a partisan manner including the unprecedented suspension of 100 MPs in December 2023. While the treasury benches have the numbers to defeat the motion, opposition MPs said that it was being brought to safeguard the Constitution.Opening the debate for the opposition, Congress MP and the party’s deputy leader in the House, Gaurav Gogoi, said that the resolution is not against Birla personally but to “safeguard” the Constitution.“We are hurt, we are not personally happy to bring this resolution. Personally, Birla has good relations with everyone. That is why we are sad that we had to bring a no confidence motion against him. We are bringing this to keep the trust of the people of the Indian Republic. It is our duty to protect the dignity of the House. This is not to attack Birla personally but to protect the dignity and safeguard the Constitution,” he said.Gogoi said that Dr B.R. Ambedkar had said that “Constitutional mortality demands impartiality.”“The founders of the Constitution envisioned that the Speaker is not the voice of the government but the custodian of the rights of the entire House,” he said.During his speech, Gogoi was interrupted several times by the treasury benches as well as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Jagadambika Pal who was presiding over the proceedings of the House. Referring to the events in the Lok Sabha that led to the opposition bringing the motion against Birla, Gogoi said that during leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi’s speech during the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, he was interrupted “20 times” by the treasury benches.“The Speaker, senior members of the government, home minister, defence minister. Just because he wanted to say that when the head of the country was needed, he instead said ‘jo uchit samjho karo (do what you deem fit)’ to the Army chief,” said Gogoi, referring to Gandhi seeking to refer to former army chief General M.M. Naravane’s yet unpublished memoir which led to the first half of the budget session being a washout.Pal interrupted Gogoi repeatedly to say that he cannot refer to the book or talk about why Gandhi was stopped, and should focus on the Speaker’s role.Gogoi said that the leader of opposition was not allowed to raise critical issues including how Prime Minister Narendra Modi handled the border issues with China, Indo-US trade deal and the Epstein files, which includes mention of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri. As Rijiju rose to interrupt him, Gogoi said that history would remember him.“In future when there will be research on parliamentary records, statistics will show that Kiren Rijiju was the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, who interrupted the Opposition the most,” said Gogoi.Union home minister Amit Shah immediately rose to shoot back that the “opposition was irresponsible”.“I agree Kiren Rijiju as Parliamentary Affairs Minister, has interrupted the most. But we have also never seen such an irresponsible opposition,” said Shah.During the discussion, TMC MP Mahua Moitra said that it was “karma” that she was opening the debate for her party, after Birla did not provide her the opportunity to present her views and expelled her from the House in 2023. Referring to the unprecedented suspension of opposition MPs during Birla’s tenure, Moitra said that this “one episode alone accounted for over 40% of all Lok Sabha suspensions since 2004”.Moitra also referred to Birla’s silence when former BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri hurled communal abuses against Danish Ali in the House, but the Speaker took no action, and also pointed to opposition MPs’ microphones being routinely muted.Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant said that in previous instances of no confidence motions brought against Speakers, the prime minister had been present in the house.“Personally we have good relations. Please introspect why such a resolution has been brought. We respect his right but rights are not his will. It cannot be his will on the chair,” he said.Treasury benches on the other hand defended Birla, including the NDA’s allies. TDP MP Lavu Srikrishna Devarayalu said that the resolution had been brought to “create spectacular headlines”, while JD(U) MP Rajeev Ranjan Singh said that it had been brought to create pressure on the Speaker.Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju focused on attacking the Congress and accused the opposition of demanding to decide the role of the Speaker and who will occupy its chair. Responding to the opposition’s charges of the deputy speaker’s post being left vacant, Rijiju said that “many things happen for the first time in parliamentary traditions”.“Many things happen for the first time in parliamentary traditions, that is why conventions are important. Now they want to decide the role of the Speaker and the opposition also wants to decide who will sit on this chair. If it is not mentioned in the rules, and there is no clarity, even then the Speaker has the final authority. You have been in government for so long but after going to the opposition in 2014 you have become restless,” said Rijiju.Rijiju then focused his speech on the Congress and, without naming Gandhi, said that he had never seen a leader of opposition who “comes and hugs the prime minister, then goes back to his seat and winks at his party MPs”. Rijiju was referring to 2018 when Gandhi hugged Modi in the Lok Sabha after his speech during the no confidence motion.Rijiju said to the opposition that there are many good people, but they had chosen to make Gandhi the LoP and then pointed to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and said that she would have performed better.“There are many good people on your side as well. But since you have made him the Leader of the Opposition, we cannot do anything about it. It is not in my hands. Priyanka Vadra Gandhi is sitting behind and smiling. If she had been made the Leader of the Opposition, perhaps the performance would have been better. At least she sits and listens; your Leader of the Opposition does not even listen. She listens, she smiles,” he said.After his speech, Gandhi Vadra said that she was smiling because the leader of opposition “does not bow before them”.“He speaks the truth without any fear and that is why they are unable to digest this,” she said.Rijiju accused the opposition of disruptions and said the BJP had never thrown papers, and walked out. He also defended Birla and said that he may come from the ruling party but his role is impartial.“He is from the ruling party; we also know that. But if the speaker is sitting in the chair, the role is impartial,” he said.The debate on the no confidence motion, which has been allotted 10 hours, will continue on Wednesday.